When morning chores are beginning, the spiderworts are usually in the shade and covered in water drops. Rain or dew.
When morning chores are finished, the spiderworts are often still covered in water drops. But where the sun reaches them, the colors light up.
Currently, white and lavender and purple spiderworts (Tradescantia) are providing most of the non-green color in the garden by the barns. Well, the spiderwort and the goutweed, Aegopodium podagraria:
Goutweed is a pretty plant, but I do wish it wasn't so terribly successful at taking over a garden, seemingly forever. I cut and pull out a lot of it every year, but if there's a way to genuinely constrain it, I haven't found it yet. Other plants have to be very quick - and tall - to outgrow the goutweed.
Today I saw the first daylily buds rising above the goutweed, and the bee balm, and the anise hyssop. This one stem is suddenly far taller than it's many daylily cohorts.
More color, coming soon!
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Your spiderworts are purple! Mine are blue and a favorite of bugs, so they usually look raggedy.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to have some blue ones. The first ones I saw "in the wild" were deep blue and I thought that was what I was planting. So surprised when they bloomed purple! And then others bloomed white!!
DeleteWhat I thought for years were spiderwort turn out to be something different, equally pretty, name escapes me. It's everywhere.
ReplyDeleteFor years I called my Amsonia something else. No idea why.
DeleteCool looking flowers!
ReplyDeleteThey are - the buds, too. I've drawn and painted them many times.
DeleteGoutweed is pretty but it certainly is invasive. It's a nice backdrop for the more colourful flowers.
ReplyDeleteIt really does complement many of the other flowers, but only the ones that are tall enough that they can hold their own against the goutweed.
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